Hug Causes Off-Duty Cop's Gun to Fire, Killing Woman

Anyone still want to talk about how guns don't kill people?  How about those of you who want to tell us how safe it is for people to carry firearms - that there isn't a significant risk to the rest of us that outweighs the fact you don't NEED to carry, you just get jazzed about the idea of having lethal force with you?

THIS is precisely why people like the example Laci provided do not want gun nuts who are carrying - open or concealed - on their property. Period.

It doesn't matter how convinced you are that you don't present a danger to us all.  You DO present dangers to us, clearly.  You have accidents.  You do stupid things; the stupidity escalates exponentially when alcohol is involved.  Or competition, particularly for something ego-related.  You aren't NEARLY as safe as you claim you are.  Your judgment is not superior to anyone else's - therefore your judgment is too damned flawed to be making lethal decisions for or about other people.

And there is absolutely NO evidence whatsoever that you make anyone safer - not us, not yourselves - or that you do shit about reducing crime.

All you do is make a lot of money for the gun manufacturers who own the NRA - not just regular green money, but bloody, dirty money stained with the deaths and injuries of tens of thousands of Americans, and even more people outside our borders - like Mexico.

From Michigan WOOD Ch.8:

Woman dies during hug with officer

Detroit Police: Hug triggered officer's gun

Updated: Sunday, 08 Jul 2012, 8:13 PM EDT
Published : Sunday, 08 Jul 2012, 6:39 PM EDT

DETROIT, Mich. (WOOD) - A woman celebrating the weekend before her 25th birthday was fatally shot Sunday when she hugged an off-duty police officer while dancing at a party, causing the officer's service weapon to fire, according to police and her mother.
Adaisha Miller would have turned 25 on Monday, according to her mother, Yolanda McNair.
The shooting happened at an outdoor social gathering about 12:30 a.m., said police Sgt. Eren Stephens. It happened on the city's west side.
According to Stephens, the woman "embraced the officer from behind, causing the holstered weapon to accidently discharge." The bullet punctured Miller's lung and hit her heart, and she died at a hospital.
Stephens said the Detroit officer will remain on administrative duties while authorities investigate the shooting and report their findings to the Wayne County prosecutor. The officer's name was not released.
"For this to happen to her, whether they want to call it freak accident or mistake in judgment, it should have never happened to my child, and there's nothing I can do to get her back," McNair told WDIV-TV.
McNair said her daughter was out to mark her upcoming birthday.
"All she wanted to do was enjoy the weekend for her birthday," the mother said. "She had every right to enjoy turning 25 and look beyond that."

Show and Tell;Another Avoidable Gun Death by one of those 'I'm Safe! I'm Trained! Guys

It's been a rough week with firearms for the U.S. Navy elite.  You'd think a Navy Seal of all people would know better than to do this.  This tragedy is one more instance of why it is guns do not belong in bars, and do not mix well with alcohol in private home situations either.

It could also be argued that this is another death caused not only by a firearm, but by the gun lunatic fetish culture that makes a firearm something to show off to other people as a fetish object of power.  This is all part of the same old, same old, tired monologue from the gun loons:

"I'm safe, trust me!  I know what I'm doing!  LOOK, I'm exercising my 2nd Amendment Rights!  No, really, I know what I'm doing!  Hey, why don't you trust me?  I don't have a fetish relationship with my gun.  It just makes me more powerful so I can shoot bad guys, but don't worry, I will only use my power for good, and to kill goblins and bad guys!  Whoooo hoo look at me with my gun!  NO NO, it's ok, I'm HIGHLY trained, and I only do things that are safe, and I'm in complete control of my firearm at all times, no really!   Why don't you trust me?  I KNOW what I'm doing, I DO! I DO!..... ~ BANG!"

Yup, I bet he was perfectly safe with guns and never harmed another innocent person.......right up until he blew his brains out to impress someone in a bar.

How many gun deaths are we up to now for the first week of 2012?  How many FEWER per capita deaths are there in other countries without so many guns and stricter regulation , in contrast? We'll have to wait for those numbersto be counted.


From MSNBC.com and the news services:

Cops: Navy SEAL accidentally shoots self in head

By msnbc.com staff and news services

SAN DIEGO -- A 22-year-old Navy SEAL was on life support Friday after he accidentally shot himself in the head while showing off a pistol to a woman he met at a bar, police said.
San Diego Police Officer Frank Cali told U-T San Diego officers were called to a home in Pacific Beach about 2 a.m. Thursday on a report that a man had shot himself in the head while playing with a gun.
Cali says the man was showing guns to a woman he'd met earlier at a bar and put a pistol he believed was unloaded to his head. Cali says he then pulled the trigger.
A Navy spokesman confirmed to U-T San Diego that the sailor had completed SEAL training last week and was assigned to a West Coast-based team.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is investigating the shooting, a Navy spokesman told the San Diego newspaper.
Commodore Collin P. Green, commander of Naval Special Warfare Group One, released a statement saying, “On behalf of the entire Naval Special Warfare community, we are deeply saddened by this unfortunate incident and extend both our hearts and prayers to our teammate’s family during this very difficult time.”
This post includes reporting from msnbc.com staff and The Associated Press.

This was a terrible incident, but this was avoidable, and the simplest way it could have been avoided was by the victim being less cocky about his skills and assumptions about safety.  Those of us who oppose the prevalence of guns and gun violence do so because these are tragic, and preventable, and because neither firearms nor the violence tha results from them makes ANY of us more free, or safer.